A Critical Review of Floridi’s “Information Ethics: An Environmental Approach to the Digital Divide”
Strauss 1
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Amberly Strauss
Instructor P. Warner
TSES 4005T
May 31, 2014
A Critical Review of Floridi’s
“Information Ethics: An Environmental Approach to the Digital Divide”
In this paper, I will discuss Luciano Floridi’s paper “Information Ethics: An
Environmental Approach to the Digital Divide”. Floridi’s paper strives to answer the question:
“What is the best strategy to construct an information society that is ethically sound?” Floridi’s argument is placed in the context of our information society’s digital divide (DD) and its subsequent ethical problems. In particular he argues that we must protect society’s environmental infosphere from information entropy. Within this context, Floridi employs an ecological model that outlines four basic norms of universal information that can be used as a guideline to help establish ethical rules and legislation of information entropy. I shall review the author’s welldeveloped socio-economic approach to the DD, his use of the controversial term “information entropy” and it’s regulators: the four basic norms. In addition to this I will discuss where our information society is now (almost fifteen years after this paper was originally published), and what is upcoming for our information societies.
Floridi’s first section of his paper introduces the DD that exists within our infosphere and acts as the source of ethical problems our information societies face today.1 Floridi distinguishes two gaps within the DD, vertical and horizontal. In elementary terms, the “vertical gap separates
[us] from past generations” (39) while the horizontal gap represents the divide between the
Strauss 2
!
“insiders and outsiders” of the infosphere (40). Floridi’s focus on the information and communication technology (ICT) age and our increasing new found technological power is equally as important as his focus on the socio-economic issues that come within the gap of the divide. Exemplified through statistical figures
!
Amberly Strauss
Instructor P. Warner
TSES 4005T
May 31, 2014
A Critical Review of Floridi’s
“Information Ethics: An Environmental Approach to the Digital Divide”
In this paper, I will discuss Luciano Floridi’s paper “Information Ethics: An
Environmental Approach to the Digital Divide”. Floridi’s paper strives to answer the question:
“What is the best strategy to construct an information society that is ethically sound?” Floridi’s argument is placed in the context of our information society’s digital divide (DD) and its subsequent ethical problems. In particular he argues that we must protect society’s environmental infosphere from information entropy. Within this context, Floridi employs an ecological model that outlines four basic norms of universal information that can be used as a guideline to help establish ethical rules and legislation of information entropy. I shall review the author’s welldeveloped socio-economic approach to the DD, his use of the controversial term “information entropy” and it’s regulators: the four basic norms. In addition to this I will discuss where our information society is now (almost fifteen years after this paper was originally published), and what is upcoming for our information societies.
Floridi’s first section of his paper introduces the DD that exists within our infosphere and acts as the source of ethical problems our information societies face today.1 Floridi distinguishes two gaps within the DD, vertical and horizontal. In elementary terms, the “vertical gap separates
[us] from past generations” (39) while the horizontal gap represents the divide between the
Strauss 2
!
“insiders and outsiders” of the infosphere (40). Floridi’s focus on the information and communication technology (ICT) age and our increasing new found technological power is equally as important as his focus on the socio-economic issues that come within the gap of the divide. Exemplified through statistical figures
Cited: Information Technology for Development 20.1 (2014). Taylor and Francis Group Online. Philosophy in the Contemporary World 9.1 (2002): 39-45. Philosopher’s Index. Web. Floridi, Luciano. Philosophy and Computing: An Introduction. London: Routledge, 1999. Print. Ethics of the Information Society. Slovakia: United Nations, 2013. Web. 29 May 2014 .